Share this Page

Mourinho: I’d be naive to focus on Guardiola mind games

Jose Mourinho says it would be naive of him to focus too much on Pep Guardiola as Manchester United boss given the amount of clubs able to win the Premier League.

Mourinho and Guardiola were rivals in the Primera Division while in charge of Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively and will face off once more in Manchester next season.

However, Mourinho, who pipped Guardiola’s Barcelona to the Primera Division title in 2012 but finished runners-up to the Catalan club twice while in Madrid, has no intention of focusing on personal duels.

Speaking at Lisbon University’s Faculty of Human Kinetics, Mourinho said: “My experience does not allow me to be naive. I was in Spain for two years, where the champion would be me or him. There, the individual fights made more sense.

“In England, if we were to only focus on him and me, and City and United, there would be another team to become champions.

“The level of the Premier League is going to get better with the players and coaches who will come.

“Four [different] champions in four years (Leicester, Chelsea, City and United) shows how competitive it is, and also says a lot about the television rights and its distribution, which will allow the growth of the league and all its teams.

“It is different to other leagues, where the sharks will always be sharks.”